Remember the explosive and exclusive review of Nokia N-8 by Mobile-review.com? The famed gadget blogger Eldar Murtazin had managed to get his hands on a pre-production unit even before the handset was officially announced. His review created quite a splash as it was republished all over the web (including on Techie Buzz). Soon after, Nokia officially announced the phone, perhaps to quell the tide of negative publicity.

Nokia also published a blog post titled “One of our children is missing“. The Finnish mobile giant made it clear that it is determined to protect its intellectual property and get the handset back. At the same time, Nokia took a potshot at Apple and promised to retain its culture of openness. Unfortunately, it appears that the relationship between Nokia and Murtazin has taken a turn for the worse.

TechCrunch is reporting that Nokia contacted the Russian authorities after Murtazin failed to respond to repeated requests to return the stolen N8 handset. Here is the statement issued by Nokia:

To be perfectly clear, we are defending our intellectual property by asking for the return of all unauthorised property in Mr. Murtazin’s possession.

This is not about attacking bloggers or people who give critical reviews of our products. So as we don’t confuse the issue, while this individual does operate a blog, he is also very public about being a consultant’ to other international mobile manufacturers. He has confirmed he is in possession of unauthorised Nokia prototypes and other intellectual property, and we have asked for their return. Whether Mr. Murtazin’s actions were as a blogger, or whether he is acting in the capacity of a consultant in order to provide information to his clients is an open question.

We’re not able to comment on what would or would not happen if the unauthorised property were returned. It would be inappropriate to speculate on future actions at this stage. However, you can be sure that we are prepared to take all appropriate and legal measures to protect our intellectual property. We believe every individual or organization has the right to protect itself.

For his part Eldar Murtazin claims that none of Nokia’s communications reached him. He also goes on to state that his numerous attempts to contact representatives of Nokia have been futile.

While Nokia is legally entitled to protect its intellectual property, its latest actions don’t go well with the “Good Boy” image the giant has managed to build and retain over the years. Nokia wants the Russian authorities to determine the appropriate course of action. Let’s hope that the situation doesn’t get ugly like it did in the Gizmodo vs. Apple incident.

Pallab De is a blogger from India who has a soft spot for anything techie. He loves trying out new software and spends most of his day breaking and fixing his PC. Pallab loves participating in the social web; he has been active in technology forums since he was a teenager and is an active user of both twitter (@indyan) and facebook .